Health system on edge
THE city’s emergency health system is crumbling in the face of overwhelming patient demand, with a medical expert warning the service is heading into a “perform storm”.
Gold Coast Primary Health Network chairman Roger Halliwell said a spike in patients with respiratory illnesses was adding pressure on the embattled emergency departments.
“The rules of engagement still prevent us as GPs from seeing patients who might have COVID or respiratory symptoms that are increasingly starting to present in the community as winter approaches.
“We are not allowed to see anyone with a cough, sore threat, runny nose, gastro symptoms and the only options people have are respiratory clinics, but these are also at capacity.”
The Gold Coast’s four respiratory clinics were booked out on Thursday because under COVID-19 rules, doctors at these practices are the only medical professionals in the city, aside from ED doctors, allowed to see people with respiratory symptoms.
Telehealth is another option, but Mr Halliwell said these appointments were only bulk-billed by Medicare if a patient had physically presented to their GP in the past 12 months, and many hadn’t so it was putting people off.
“If there are no clinical appointments at the respiratory clinics the only option for those needing a physical assessment is the ED, and that’s problematic for all sorts of reasons,” he said.
“GPs don’t have a choice, we can’t bring people in the back door, we also can’t afford staff and doctors who treat the Coast’s sick and elderly to get unwell and be off work.”
Record numbers presented to the Gold Coast University Hospital emergency department (ED) last week, resulting in a code yellow every day last week. This means the health service is unable to meet demand and had no beds.
Sick patients waited hours as ambulances were ramped and patients waited in corridors for up to a day while doctors hurried to discharge people from wards to free up beds. Staff aren’t coping, with one nurse saying health workers are burnt out and being abused by frustrated and anxious patients.
Mr Halliwell said locals had to stay home from work if they were sick and not send their kids to school to reduce the spread of germs, otherwise the pressure on the public health system would intensify over the next few weeks.
“If people stayed at home, over time this would reduce significantly the number of presentations at emergency departments, but they are just not. We’re definitely heading into a perfect storm as winter approaches.”
A Gold Coast Health spokeswoman said when a level 6.3 for bed capacity was reached (code yellow) it was not cause for alarm.
“It is an internal activation which allows our hospitals to allocate resources. When we experience periods of high demand for bed capacity, we leverage availability between our two hospitals, as well as partner with the city’s private hospitals.”
She said GC Health’s emergency department was the busiest in Australia.